BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (Sept. 6, 2025) – Chicago Fire (12-10-6, 42 points) earned a 3-2 victory over the New England Revolution (8-14-7, 31 points) Saturday night at SeatGeek Stadium. The victory moves the Fire into ninth place in the Eastern Conference Standings.
Wingers Jonathan Bamba and Philip Zinckernagel scored in the match for Chicago before forward Hugo Cuypers added his sixth game-winning goal of the season. Midfielder André Franco marked his home debut with two assists in the match.
Just under 90 seconds into the match, Bamba got on the end of a lofted pass from Brian Gutiérrez into the box. The winger tapped the ball behind goalkeeper Matt Turner and slotted home the opener for Chicago. Eight minutes later, Franco turned away from pressure just outside the New England box before passing off to Zinckernagel, who took a few touches before driving a shot to the far post that knocked in to double the Fire lead.
Chicago took a 2-0 lead well into the second half, when midfielder Dje D’Avilla started a run into the box before passing to Franco. The Portuguese midfielder cut into the box and passed to Cuypers on his right, who struck a well-placed shot off his far post to make it a 3-0 lead in the 68th minute of play.
The visitors struck back 10 minutes later, when wingback Peyton Miller got behind the Fire defense and finished from the left of the box to make it 3-1. New England pushed for another one before drawing a penalty kick in stoppage time, which midfielder Carles Gil finished to cut the deficit to one. The Revolution looked for the equalizer, but a last-minute stop by goalkeeper Chris Brady sealed the result for the Fire, who jumped up to ninth place in the East with the victory.
NEXT MATCH: Chicago returns to Soldier Field for another key Eastern Conference matchup against New York City FC. The match on Saturday, Sept. 13 is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast globally on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and transmitted locally on wlsam.com (English) and Que Buena Fire via the Uforia App (Spanish). A replay of the match will be available on Marquee Sports Network later the following week.
Notes:
- Philip Zinckernagel tallied his 12th goal of the season Saturday. His combined 12 goals and 13 assists in 2025 broke a tie with Ante Razov (24 in 2000) for second-most goal contributions for a Fire player in a single season. The Danish winger now trails only Nemanja Nikolić’s 28 goal contributions in 2017 as the most in one campaign.
- Forward Hugo Cuypers tallied his 16th goal of 2025 to finish off the scoring for Chicago. The goal also broke a tie with 2013 MLS MVP Mike Magee and Nikolić (2018) for the third-most scored in a single season. His sixth game-winning goal of the year also tied Ante Razov (2000) for second-most in one campaign.
- André Franco marked his first start and first home appearance with Chicago with his first two goal contributions for the team. His two-assist match was the first since Zinckernagel’s performance in a 2-2 draw against LAFC on Aug. 16., when goal-scorer Jonathan Bamba also tallied his last goal.
- Defender Jonathan Dean recorded a career-high 14th start of the season in place of Leonardo Barroso, who was unavailable due to international duty with the Portugal U-21 Men’s National Team. The right back played a full 90 minutes, nearly recording an assist with multiple crosses into the box.
- Besides Barroso, defender Joel Waterman (international duty) and midfielders Rominigue Kouamé (lower body) and David Poreba (lower body) were unavailable for selection tonight.
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Box Score:
Chicago Fire FC 3:2 New England Revolution
Goals:
CHI - Bamba (5) (Gutiérrez 4) (WATCH) 2’
CHI - Zinckernagel (12) (Franco 1) (WATCH) 10’
CHI - Cuypers (16) (Franco 2) (WATCH) 68’
NE - Miller (2) (Chancalay 2) (WATCH) 78'
NE - Gil (10) (Penalty) (WATCH) 90+4'
Discipline:
CHI - Brady (Yellow Card) 72’
NE - Ceballos (Yellow Card) 81’
CHI - González (Yellow Card) 90+3’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Brady, D Dean, D Rogers (González, 90'), D Elliott (capt.), D Gutman; M Franco (Oregel Jr., 76'), M Gutiérrez (Acosta, 83'), M D’Avilla; F Zinckernagel, F Cuypers (Barlow, 83'), F Bamba (Haile-Selassie, 76')
Subs not used: GK Gal, D Reynolds, D Cupps, M Pineda
New England Revolution: GK Turner, D Feingold (Omsberg, 69'), D Ceballos, D Beason (Sands, 86'), D Miller; M Gil (capt.), M Yueill (Oyirwoth, 69'), M Yusuf, M Langoni (Bye, 79'); F Chancalay, F Ganago
Subs not used: GK Bono, D Farrell, M Klein, F Fry, F George
Stats Summary: CHI / NE
Shots: 14 / 16
Shots on Goal: 7 / 5
Saves: 3 / 4
Passing Accuracy: 86.2% / 85.5%
Corners: 8 / 6
Fouls: 8 / 9
Offsides: 3 / 2
Possession: 50.5% / 49.5%
Attendance: 16,947
Referee: Guido Gonzales, Jr.
Assistant Referees: Matthew Nelson, Jeffrey Swartzel
Fourth Official: Ricardo Montero Araya
VAR: Michael Radchuk
AVAR: Mark Allatin
